Techniques described herein relate to a wireless communication system in general, and more particularly, to a method and system for detecting a desired signal and reducing types of interference such as multi-user inter-symbol-interference (MU-ISI), multi-code interference (MCI), or inter network interference (INI).
A wireless communication involves a cellular structure where a call control and management device such as a base station is placed at the center of a cell and communicate with a number of terminals such as handsets or other communication devices using a predetermined frequency band. As such, the wireless communication network can serve multiple users. For the purpose of discussion, the term “terminal” is used interchangeably with the term “user” as each one terminal must have at least one user.
As it is well known, when the base station transmits signals to the terminal, the communication is referred to as a downlink communication. Similarly, when the terminal transmits signals back to the base station, it is known as an uplink communication. During both the uplink and downlink communications, the receivers of base stations or terminals receive the combination of the signals of interest and interfering communication interference signals such as multi-user inter-symbol-interference (MU-ISI), multi-code interference (MCI) and inter network interference (INI).
To support high speed internet access and multimedia communications, CDMA is extended to function as both access and variable rate modulation scheme. In this case, multiple codes can be assigned to a single user in response to dynamic communication traffic. So each user may be characterized by multiple code signatures. As is well known, the capacity of a CDMA system is largely limited by the multiple code interference (MCI) due to non-orthogonality among user signature waveforms as well as multi-user inter-symbol interference (MU-ISI) due to signature overlapping caused by channel dispersion. In synchronous communication systems, spreading codes are chosen to be mutually orthogonal. However, channel distortion, physical multipath or imperfect timing, can destroy this ideal property and introduce signature dispersion which causes the MCI and MU-ISI. The MU-ISI can be removed by inserting guard chips between symbols which causes low spectrum efficiency. The MCI and MU-ISI can also be mitigated by method of equalization which is effective only in the single user case. In addition to aforementioned intracell interference, other communications in the vicinity of the cell wherein the desired communication is carried out generate interference. All such types of interference are collectively referred to as the inter-network interference (INI). High INI also limits the system capacity.
In summary, the interference issue most likely arises in the following scenarios: (1) when air links suffer dispersive multipath with delay spread larger than the inversion of signal bandwidth and/or when timing is not perfect, the ideal orthogonality among spreading codes is destroyed, and the MCI and MU-ISI occurred; (2) when any undesired communications in the neighborhood of the cell generate the INI; (3) when non-orthogonal spreading codes are used by design to increase system utilization and throughput.
Smart antennas and joint detection are two powerful techniques proposed to suppress the above described types of interference in the space and time domain respectively. Smart antennas system employs antenna array at the base station to provide beamforming gain and/or diversity gain against interference and fading, thereby greatly enhancing signal-to-interference ratio at both the base station and mobile site. Further enhancement can be achieved in a multi-cell environment by explicitly making use of discrepancy in the spatial signatures between desired users and interfering sources. On the other hand, multiuser detection exploits the distinction in the temporal signature waveforms of multiple accessing users and applies either linear nulling and/or nonlinear soft/hard decision based cancellation to extract user information in a significantly more efficient way than conventional methods.
A big challenge of incorporating space-time processing into a base station is how to achieve both spatial and temporal diversity gain and capacity improvement in a multi-interference environment with reasonable computational complexity. In order to avail coherent detection, accurate and fast estimation of space-time channel response for multiple users is required in an interference prone and mobile environment.
What is needed is an improved method and system for offering all desired gains by employing multiple antennas and codes with reasonable complexity for detecting desired signals and canceling the various undesirable types of interference.